We get it! During the winter holidays, sometimes we get so focused on holiday meals, travel, and seeing friends or family that we aren’t as physically active as usual.
Staying active is good for everyone’s physical and emotional health and can make the holidays more fun for children and adults. Here are some easy family activities you can do at home or in your neighborhood to keep moving during the holiday season. These activities can be done a variety of ways, so people with different levels of physical ability can choose how much to participate.
Outdoor Fun
- Snow Fun – Giant Snowball and More: If you have snow, there are many snow-related activities that you can do in a private yard or a local park. One fun activity that can be turned into a competition is to see which person or team of people (including kids and adults) can create the biggest snowball. Or work together to create the biggest one you can as a group! Or stick with classic snow fun like building snow sculptures or sledding. These activities are all great for burning energy and warming up on a cold day.
- Festive Nature Walks: Take walks in your neighborhood or local parks to enjoy the holiday decorations and winter scenery. Encourage kids to collect pinecones, colorful leaves, or other natural items to use for craft projects later.
- Hot chocolate walk: Does it feel too cold for a walk outside? Try getting everyone motivated by taking mugs or travel cups of hot chocolate (or tea or coffee) to stay warm.
Indoor Fun
- Dance Parties: Put on your favorite holiday music and have dance parties in the living room. Dancing is a fantastic way to stay active and boost your mood. Let each member of the family or group pick at least one song, including a ridiculous one.
- Home Workout Challenges: Find kid-friendly home workout routines or yoga sessions on platforms like YouTube. Make it a family challenge to complete a set number of exercises or hold yoga poses for a specific time.
- Winter-themed Charades: Play a game of winter-themed charades in your living room by acting out winter-themed or holiday-related words or phrases. Find rules and a winter-themes charades word list in our other post on fun, inexpensive family activities for the holiday season.
- Obstacle Courses: Create obstacle courses using furniture, cushions, and other household items. Time each other as you navigate the course, and take turns setting up new challenges.
- Yard Games: Set up games like cornhole or horseshoes in your backyard or a nearby park. Throwing a frisbee to each other is also a good all ages activity and can work during the cold weather.
- Holiday Baking Workout: While baking holiday treats, use the time between steps to do quick exercises, like squats, lunges, or push-ups. It’s a fun way to include physical activity during a busy day.
- Stretch and Relaxation: Wind down the day with some family stretching or yoga sessions. This can help everyone relax and unwind before bedtime.
Or come up with your own ideas. You may end up creating new holiday traditions! Whatever you do, go easy of yourself! The purpose of this info is to have fun and enjoy quality time together as a family while staying active during the holidays or any cooler time of the year.